Talkin' Cowboys: Here's The Rundown

The Great Everson Walls across the table from me. I am now official. He's now official. I am now as he's on the signage. He's got a badge. I got a badge. Hey, I want I want to just uh ground rules here. I'm official now, Okay, No, what is it? Mike Fences is his name? No, No moments like that. Okay, you know I'm talking about silent. What he was a silent which was not silent, It was deadly. We'll avoid that none of that here, Okay. Can we just agree now?

Go ahead? Uh? Because he spoke from the other side of his his body, which I'm sure people think he says that all does that all the time anyway, But no, it was a it was unsolicited comment from the other side of his from the back side of his body. And uh, he tried to deny it, right, and he's the only one in the studio. What what are you gonna do? What are you gonna say? He did well, he played it off real well. And now they've they've got this controversy out there about who dealt it and

who smelt it. They could have just said it was a drop, yeah, which drop, very odd drop. So we'll have none of that, none of that. I'm official now now that he's official. Yes, and not from you, even on your birthday today, Happy birthday. I appreciate that and yours kind of close to it. Yeah, I'm at the end of the month. End of the month. You guys gave me a cake one time, Bill, Bill gave me a cake. I was at the Gay Lord, and uh, that's right, give this show out there, gave me a

big old cake. And I'm not a chocolate cake guy, but that was one of the best freaking cakes I've ever had. Yeah, it was fancy, that's right, because I actually agreed to do the show. I think kind of it. Last last million, he took me away from my family, said it was my birthday. Well we don't, we don't have anything for you today. I apologize, but you got forty five minutes with me and every since. That's good. I'm blessed you have somebody. I'm sitting right here. You

got here. Yeah. Absolutely? How many years is it today? Uh? Sixty seven and still grinded, that's right? How many years on the beat? Thirty five? Wow? Yeah, So you need that that whole jack, Jack black, you need jack. You got it. I should have been using it reverse time. You know that, right? And it dawned on me that Sunday. So was it December eighth? If I got my dates right? Correct? Right? That was twenty eight years ago. We got the word at a Cowboys game on Sunday that Dallas Times Harold

was being closed. Yes, yeah, twenty eight years ago, right before your birthday. Humhuh yeah, but you're right after Pearl Harbor day. I said, oh, this is a different guy, Pearl Harbor. But you didn't skip a beat. You stayed on the beat all the way through. And this twenty nineteen season, at least the regular season is coming to a close. Can the Cowboys wind up playing into January?

That's the question that we're gonna get somebody wants. Yeah, we're gonna get answers in the next three weeks, and it continues Sunday against the Rams. I think it's a good time of the week to probably dive into La and what they've been able to do the last couple weeks, in particular as we look towards that matchup. But before we do that, Jason Garrett just had his press conferences.

What do you glean from that, Mick Well, from a injury standpoint, it sounded like things were improving except for Layton Vanderich, which you know, I he's not practicing this week and there's only two weeks after this. My feeling on this and sort of what I've been able to get told was that they probably would have to get into the playoffs for him to get back and play that. You know, he's got a herniated disc in his neck. Let's let's face it, you know, and and you those

things take their time. They're trying to get it to calm down. I don't know if it's like I'm not familiar with this part of it. But you know, when you haven't heard an eighty disc in your back, you can you can take a shot. I don't know that you can do that in your neck. I don't know what you want to do that right in your neck? Yeah, and from one eye and stay on that epidural needle is pretty long. And so yeah, I got one myself

a few weeks ago. Ye for a back. Yes, different story and you probably didn't see it, which you were better off. Nope, they put you under, which is good. Yeah, so that that's what they give to the ladies, right, yes, yeah, So anyway, Uh, they're just hoping that they can treat it and calm it down, but not yet. Good news is is Jeff Heath uh should do something today. Now he's got I think we talked about it the other day. He's got two shoulders and we all have two shoulders,

or he has two shoulder injuries. Well that's why I write, don't talk right. Um, he's got laboram tails tears in both shoulders. So that is that's very painful. And what they're doing is they've he's been trying to wear a brace and work through it, uh to and the brace restricts your range of motion in your arms so it doesn't go too far back and I'm kind of moving my arm back behind my back and uh and so to reduce where the pain starts hitting. So, uh, he's

gonna try. I don't know if he makes it, but it sounds like he's going to do something today. Antoine Woods with the spray knee, looks like he'll do something. And same thing for Tony Pollard with the sprained ankle. He was close to the game on Thursday. Uh, just couldn't get back in time. So now he's had he'll have ten days before he has to play, and uh, I think he's getting a chance to do. And then he mentioned afterwards that the offensive lineman that have been limited, Uh,

you know Lale Collins, Zach Martin. Um, I guess tiring a little bit. The layoff between games as hell, because four games in nineteen days I think took a toll on some of these guys physically. I would say Mary Cooper too, and and maybe no one asked about Coop, but I would say yes for him also, I mean he was because they were regulating his snaps in the game. Yeah, the last probably since Detroit, I would think. I think

he played significantly fewer snaps against Detroit. And then you start that stretch like you said, now he's been injured when we the whole Gilmore match up, right, and he was not happy about the the narrative that was going there. Yeah, because it wasn't full of strength, the weather was crappy, and they we said he shut him. He was shut down, and his body language didn't look good either way. You're on the sidelines, they running the ball. He didn't even

have a code on. He's just sitting there, you know, getting drenched. So it just the body language just didn't didn't look good. And and yeah, he was injured before that game and was kind of volatile and angry about the fact that we thought that Gilmore shut him out. He was not happy about that. And and let's face it, these last couple games, I think in some instances when they went three wide, but they you thought they were going to run the ball. They didn't think Tavon Austin

needed to be in there, right, but he was. And so that was a way to give him a break and not have him play sixty plays in a game and limited to about thirty thirty. So, dare we say that after this break that this team will be whole. Maybe that offensive line will be e when stronger the team that the unit that we've always grown to know and love and depend on, yes, depend on for this team to really when you're talking last year, especially the rookie year with Dak and Zeke, they were they were

the union on this team. They were the union on this squad. They were the studs and train the camp. You know, they were they walking around together. It's almost like they went slow motion everywhere they went, because they looked like the slow motions. Yeah. Now, kind of cool though, And you know, and I still say that New England game took a lot out of them. I just think took a lot out of them physically. Jason Garrett was asked about that on the fan a couple of days ago.

I think because you said at the second half of the Buffalo game on Thanksgiving fatigue might have been a factor, and he he said, look, it's no excuse. We've played this schedule where you played Thanksgiving and then you have a Thursday. Yeah many years and then and then that Thursday game. You don't necessarily have that ten days break

that many buy, which they just got. He didn't use it as an excuse, but I think, you know, that was unusual circumstances in New England, and I think it probably did play a little bit of a factor and

something that we should we should u consider acknowledging. I guess, yeah that maybe if they come back after this ten ten day break and yeah, we'll see, We'll see, Yeah maybe with this is the squad that we've been waiting on, and they've just been held back a little bit just by the circumstances of the schedule itself and unusual burden that is put on us this particular year. Usually we

handled it very well, but this year we hadn't. And hopefully that's one reason that we can be optimistic about the return. You know. And I, as I pointed out before that twenty fourteen season, when they had the late night game against New York on Sunday before Thanksgiving, freezing and that the one looks freezing and then they come back and get back at four or five in the morning,

and then you got to play on Thursday. They know, showed against the Eagles and they were a twelve and four team that year, and that was one of the losses they know, showed on Thanksgiving at home against the Eagles, And you know, I don't know if there's a correlation there or not. I just know how my body feels, and I didn't play by the fields right now twenty year I feel every more you're talking rooms and like, oh yeah, that sounds right. Yeah, okay that yeah, speaking

of that, when you reach this up, yeah, gotta check everything. Okay, we're good, let's go. Everybody's got a little something. Yeah. All that being said, Jerry has pointed out multiple times though, that overall the health of this team is pretty good. I mean, you know, you miss Vanderesh Heath obviously going through some stuff. You haven't had Woods for several games

this year, off and on, and then we forget. But Connor Williams get placed on injured that's it's like when he's not in the injury port, you forget about the guy that's Tyrone Crawford. They I think they miss his versatility and in the middle defensive line or on the edge as well. But overall it's pretty healthy group. I mean, you look at the Eagles, I mean al Sean Jeffrey reportedly out for the year, they're dealing with the more

out yea. So it's sometimes attrition and being able to be the healthier team can be the difference this time of year. I mean, and even though you're healthy, and I'm hoping that's the case here, even though the Cowboys are healthy, they're still fatigued. I'm hoping they're just fatigued from the schedule and from the grind that we've just talked about. So hopefully when they come back with the same healthy players, but with more energy, more vigor, you know,

it'll be interesting to see. I don't know if he has padded practices left or not, if they're in pads today or if they've used them up, because I know over these last several games they did not practice in pat You only get crazy, man, What did I tell you? It's something like thirteen at the most. Yeah, and you get you can't save them for the last three weeks either. Yeah, you got to use them. So you know he didn't

use them before Thanksgiving. He probably didn't use them last week because you're playing again, any any kind of like en up going into that New England game just knowing what was ahead too, So it'd be interesting see if they have any padded practice was left and if he puts the pads on today, anything else come out of Garrett.

You know. The other thing that coach Garrett said that jumped out to me was he just was bluntly honest about the fact that they have not played well enough in all three phases, you know, offense, defense, special teams. It just hasn't been good enough, regardless of weather, schedule, injuries. And that's where the team is right now. I mean you could you could throw out a lot, Yeah, you could really throw out a lot, but there's got to be still just you still have to quantify what's your

strength At this point. You could just say, yeah, we're all playing like crap, but you still as a team have to quantify. Okay, what can we hang our head on at this point? We can't just what they what's the term throughout the baby with the bath water, right, which is very odd visual came up with. That's saying all right, somewhat person, you know so, but what you look at you still have to quantify where how are we going to hone our attack now towards our opposition?

What what do you guys think it is? What do you think still they can hang their hat on to quote you ever since, because that's a good point. I mean they've got to have something they feel like still their strength. Offensive line still playing well, yeah, Zeke still running the ball, they opened up the hole's great average. You know, you got a couple of touchdowns even amongst the incompetence, you could pick that out as the consistent

aspect of this offense. Passing has been um consistent, but it hadn't been exciting, you know, it hadn't been effective. It's been consistent, but now effective and simply because the other side of the ball just just in holding up there their their weight, but they aren't pulling their weight. So to me, it's just like where we've always at. Our offensive line is really where we need to concentrate

on being our consistent attack mode. You know, that should be that should be our sword is by the running game itself and complimenting it with a good passing game. That to me, that's something that we've we've always hung our head on and if we could just show it up defensively at all, along with getting our third downs, we have not first drive, not the first drive third downs, I mean, continually move the chains on third downs, especially

during crucial parts of the moment. Let's just be real, guy. Numbers are amazing. We can always took a number number seven in defense, well number our offenses got some number one tag somewhere, but you're still not effective. So forget the numbers and I'll tell them the whole story. It's all about the situations. That's a great point because four for four I think on third down that first drive, as you said, they were something like two for thirteen

the rest of the way or something close to that. Again, you could take that two for thirteen and just give me, give me a five for thirteen. So those other three they got to be crucial third downs. You understand what I'm saying, sir. We're in moments now. It's not about numbers, and they keep quantifying things. I get that, but it's about moments right now. And that's why I brought up the Ravens yesterday. They don't care about numbers. The defense

don't care about numbers. It's just one defense I'm talking about with San Francisco. They're gonna ball out no matter what the situation is. They don't care about Oh, this is third down, guys, here we go, this is what we're strong. They don't mention that in the huggle. They just come out and ball. They might they were getting toasted by the Saints all game long, but when it

came down to the moments, they made the play. Nick, where do you where do you think this team should still be confident in terms of strength of the team where they can hang their hat on. So I still think offense, and I needed to look this up because I was gonna say it and I didn't want to speak like, oh, you don't know what he's talking about. One of the things that I think's happened with this offense,

and Everson kind of touched on it. I haven't done anything like spectacular, like big plays in the passing game. So I looked it up. In these last three games, they've only had ten passing plays of twenty yards or more. They had. They've got fifty seven for the season. And if you look at you know, the Minnesota game, I know they lost, but they've got about and i'd have

to count it up ten plays in that game. Since then, what Detroit or not Detroit, New England, Buffalo and Chicago, they've got ten pass plays of twenty yards or more, and four of them are in the fourth quarter of this last game, when the Bears are basically saying, all right, we'll give you a but there. I think teams have adopted this defensive style is we're coming after you, but we're gonna keep everything in front of us, right, and we're not going to give you those big plays down

the field. That's what I was going to ask you, because has you think there's been a shift in terms of approach by opponents? Yes, from those yes, I think it was Minnesota and Detroit where committing a lot of bodies in different ways to stop Zeke, but there was a lot of openings in the passing game. You think it's been different during this three game losing streak. So against in Minnesota and Detroit, they had sixteen pass plays of twenty yards or more, Yeah, and now ten in

three games. So I think people looked at what happened in those games and it's like, all right, they're slinging around the first three games of the season. Yeah. Actually, even through Green Bay, I think the Jets game they only had two Philadelphia they won the game, they only had two, and then the next Giants game they only had three, and then the next two games they had all those twenty yard pass plays. They were running all

over the place down in the secondary right now. All of a sudden, it's like, okay, how do we stop this passing game because we can't contain it. They've got too many weapons. Well, blitz and make sure everything's in stead is in front of you, right course, especially a play action pass. Yes, And that's where we were extremely successful during mid season. Up till mid season, our play action was amazing. I think uh DAK was about one

fifty eclip in regards to play action you proficiencies. Passing efficiency was about one fifty and that they talked about that, so teams became aware of it. Of course, if if if a commentator is aware of it, then the other the defensive coordinator is aware of it. And they felt, okay, we're gonna have to take the lesser of the evils with a talented team, a team that can do more

than one thing. So they decided, okay, we're gonna stop Zeke and anytime they come with the play action, we're gonna make sure and not give up the big play and make them continue to drive. And this is what you've seen has come through. We have the great drives going and at that time, we got nothing left. They're not gonna let's do the same thing over again. In those seventeen plays during that drive, they're not gonna let's

do those same things over again. We've already exposed ourselves and with the still play action mentality defensively, they're gonna make sure and keep everything in front of them, and it just makes things hard for us offensively, and that's what that's what takes away the excitement. That's why we're uneventful, because they're just keeping everything in front of us. You can drive eighty yards, and seventeen plays have added more than once, yeah than once, show you can consistently do.

And then as we get to the red zone as games go on, that's where we become uneffective. Ineffectives in the red zone because we'll drive all the way down, but then we can't score, miss field goals, bad play calling, bad execution. So we've fallen right into that and that's been that pattern since they have started playing us like that. That's been our pattern offensively. That's been our pattern of failure of fancifully and literally eighty yards driving as Mick

just said, because I think they're average. Drive started against Chicago is our twenty one yard line long drives and new long fields to go and try to take away the big play that has been an issue for Dallas offensively and try to get it turned around against the Rams. Let's come back and talk about Sunday's matchup with La next. When we come back, I'm talking Cowboys. Selor is a proud sponsor of the Dallas Cowboys, helping fans see more

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Jack Black natural. I have been replaced on the Liners. Bill Jones should hand him off to too great job. I want to hear how mix and then we didn't have and then we don't have to listen to OU all the time. There you go find out. I like you got a tough matchup coming up in a few weeks. We'll see what happens there. Welcome back to Talking Cowboys.

Thank you, Everson. We're inside the SWBC Mortgage studio. Cowboys back to practice outdoors today, getting set for the Rams Sunday eighteen te Stadium three fifteen kickoff, something like that, three twenty three, twenty five. It's the late it's the late game. I would assume Rams played on Sunday night beat Seattle twenty eight to twelve, one of their maybe maybe a signature win for them, especially after losing forty five to six. So probably the best team in the

AFC right now. The Baltimore Ravens a couple of weeks ago, so eight and five Rams, what have you guys seen from them? Maybe last couple of weeks this season, maybe since the Jalen Ramsey trade that has you concerned, or maybe some opportunities for the Cowboys and Jaylen Ramsey trade. To me, that's that's an exciting happening because we're going to see a good matchup. We're going to see that matchup.

They've put Jayleen on some of their better receivers that they've come up against as soon as he got into camp, so of course we know he's gonna be on Coop and I can't wait for this matchup. This is going to be one of those, uh, what we wanted to see in New England, but without the weather, you know, just really affecting everybody's performance. So I'm really looking forward to Coop coming out with rest, hopefully as healthy as

he can be. And Jalen Ramsey is one of the more aggressive of Oh my goodness, this guy is so physical that you know, I envy him sometimes he's he plays angry, which is the way a defensive back is supposed to play. But he plays angry with a purpose and with a strong mentality. He's not just out there trying to beat up the receiver, which he can do because the guys he's bigger than me, arms longer than mine, stronger than me. Uh. That's that's the kind of defensive back.

All wide receivers don't want to see and he comes with the attitude of I'm going to destroy you, but I'm also going to outthink you. And that's where he's a problem because his experience makes him the most effective dB cornerback in the NFL this year. Did you talk a lot to wide receivers because he's known as a trash talk No, no, no no, I had too much to think about. Yeah, we're really spags. No, the flex defense defense defense, I got too much to look at the

cornerbacks are looking at the backs in the backfield. No one, no defense has ever been like our defense. You you don't as a cornerback. You're not supposed to look at the flow of the back while you're trying to worry about this guy running the four two forty coming at you. So those kind of things really just kept you in tuned to what was going on, and I didn't have

time for trash talk. One thing, one thing that I locked about not trash talking is when you're whipping their butts and you're not saying the word that is worse. They hate that, so they go fussing into two referees, they go fussing the coaches, and he's holding he's doing this, and I'm just just quiet. Definitely were consistently off in your in your ego, yeah yeah, in your head. Yeah, you know. And one thing that the Rams have done these last games, and they've scored what thirty four twenty

eight points, they're handing the ball to Girly. Imagine that. It's almost like, oh, yeah, we do have this guy in the backfield here, let's just hand it to him a little bit more. And he's been productive and I think that's helped Goff. You can't just have your quarterback and we've seen it, throwing the ball thirty five forty forty five times a game. You know, it's you. When

you're balanced like that, you become dangerous. And if you you know, that was their recipe against the Cowboys in that playoff game, right, two hundred and seventy three yards rushing C J. Anderson and C Anders Can you right now, No, he's not. I think C. J. Anderson's performance in that game confused the Saints. I'm sorry the Rams offense because now sudden the coaches he doesn't feel like he needs

Girly anymore. They go sign Golf to the contract. Now they want Golf to be the face of the offense. It seemed that way, especially when you're talking Girly wasn't really injured when they kept trying to say he was injured, they kept trying to rely on that where the doctors saying, is this guy injured? Or why are we not giving

him the ball? This coach of the year, you know this, this this professor, this, this genius all of a sudden forgets that he has one of the best running backs in the league in his backfield, and then he says he should he should should slap himself from the face or something for not realizing that. To me, that's extremely confusing. I don't I don't buy that that you don't you forgot that you had this great running back in your backfield.

You're having problems, you're not as effective as you should be, and you're still not running this running back. To me, that was extremely confusing. I wish they'd go back to that confusion before they play us on Sunday, because with Girly in now, they are the team that everyone hits feared.

You're absolutely right. I wrote about this yesterday. He hadn't gotten more Girly more than eighteen carries in each of their first eight games and then these last three that they've won twenty five nineteen twenty three, and he's ran for a touchdown in all three games. I don't understand and Mickey's right it. Goff has struggled it points throughout this season, but we've seen it with Dak. You get your running game going play action, everything kind of stabilizes.

And the Cowboys have dropped not just three in a row, four of their last five. I looked this up to Dak's averaging forty six and a half pass attempts a game. When you're playing catch up, some of it's catch up, a lot of it's catch up. But second half the defense takes Ezekiel Elliott out of the game, the Cowboys defense. There you go your own what was your number? The second half deficits you had you had it figured out

well at halftime. Combined the last two games, they've been outscored thirty to fourteen in the first half theirst, So they've got the trigger trailing all the time in the second half, and it you know, and and if you look at the playoff game, you know Goff was okay. Goff didn't beat him in that playoff game. That running

game beat him. You know the girlies. What was a thirty thirty six yard run for the touchdown, which, by the way, and this still if they go back and look at this stuff, it was still after they came up with the stop on third down and the guy that was twenty five yards down, the field official called hands to face on Byron Jones. And what happened in the play in the official that was standing right on

the line of scrimmage didn't call it that. He had his hand on the guy's chest and when the receiver went to get his hand off, he flipped it up and his hand went up and grazed the face mask and he called hands to the face like he held him up. They don't get that call. They don't score that touchdown, they don't have the ball that time. Not

I'm saying it's going to change the whole game. But the game was still within reason at that point thirty to twenty two thirty two, and we were going for that that last drive, we were going for the touchdown. And then the other play at the end of the half, yeah, the phantom in the grass play and then the head official who called it to the poll reporter said, yeah, I had, I had in the grass and I said, yeah, he was in Lell Collins grass. Yeah, in the Rams grass.

And see that. Those are two significant calls that you forget about in a significant game. Yes, you say you don't want to make a difference like that as in a significant game. Yeah, I'm gonna give a quarterback a chance to get out of that, because this is a significant time in a significant game. You don't just blow this off like it's a preseason game. In the grass, which you obviously didn't have full view of. Yeah, because

it was in the glass by the opposition. It was, as he said, his offensive, it was like a fall. And these are those moments where you say, if we could have yeah, you know what the shuldar could have. When you're not good enough to overcome those things, you know, it's like the two tripping calls. Yeah you know that weren't trips. Well okay, but they called it, and it changed what was going on in that game because those

plays were successful. Yes, doing those calls, but in that playoff game it did go back to two hundred and seventy three yards allowed, the most ever by a Cowboys opponent in a playoff game. Wow, really most even more than Dickerson. Even how it was there? How many was that I think it was in two forties. Well it was one player, well two fifteen and that was it, just Pa. I don't know if anybody else scrambled or got something to go into rounds. I don't know. Yeah,

people forget. I mean, Gurley was over one hundred yards in that game in January too, But Anderson was the guy that they just didn't have answer for. And we're kind of late. I want to ask you, guys, what you saw in that game and when they had problems in run defense last year, what's is it the same issues that they're having this year? Looks like it to me? You want to answer that? Now? You want to wait? I could go on, Okay, let's wait. Let's because it

sure looks like it's between the tackles. Let's get yeah, let's get that answer when we come back and wrap things up next. Cowboys Rams discussion on Talking Cowboys Since eighteen sixty five. Stetson hats are American, made with pride right here in Texas, and Stetson is proud to be on the field with America's team. Want to show your Texas and team pride too, You can by purchasing your own Stetson. You can look just like how the flag

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you'll get that discount in most free products fifteen. Yeah. Wow. So what it does is it gives you a sample of all these different things and if you like them, well you can go purchase them. So beer loop the loop beer Yes, yeah, yeah, bear Bird no, no, liner there you just wing that. I read it for a week. I think I got it, but we are really doing it. I mean the announcements. You know when I when I took those standardized standardized test in grade school and in

high school, my retention rate was terrible. I'd have to read things about four times to remember. I don't even want to know that. I don't even want to know my stuff. I don't even want to know my analysis. Sorry, I want to know your analysis on the Cowboys run defense that very successfully before we went to break what what are you seeing different or the same from when they had problems last year? I see that you got it? Yeah? Sweet, you know it's it's almost the same as I've I've

been talking about for the last three weeks. Top of Tony Tobert one day and his take on it all was as a defensive lineman, He's he's getting He's all about the D line and how they can help affect this run defense. I talk about the offensive lineman that are just coming off so quickly and freely into the linebackers faces. I do recall when I played with the Cowboys that and the Giants. The D line has to assist in some way in slowing the progress down to

those offensive linemen. They have to give the linebacker a chance to at least read what's going on, and that's an initial read step. By the time the cowboy linebackers are taking that initial read step, the linemen are already free and in their faces on the successful plays, on the successful running plays on that second level. As you say, the bubble that I always talk about that exists between the linebacker and the uncovered lineman, that bubble has been

burst by the offensive lineman. And when they burst that bubble first, then they have the advantage. Okay, they're cutting Jalen Smith at the legs, they're cutting off Sean Lee talking two fifty versus sometimes three twenty five. You can't even see around them, creating gashes on that second level. And by the time they get to the secondary, you're running back is full speed. And now you're talking about woods trying to make a tackle. You're talking about mister

laboram two labels trying to make a tackle. That's difficult, and they've been consistently doing that. I look at the linebackers as needing to read faster. A guy like Tony Tobot will tell you the d line needs to assist more, and you know, they're encumbering the offensive lineman before they come off the line of scrimmage. So that's to me, that's the that's the that's the solution coming from a

defensive back. But if you look at the loose solution coming from a defensive end, a defensive linement, those defensive linemen have to help those linebackers so that they won't have to worry about the linement in their face immediately before you can even read the play, you know. And that started in that Indianapolis game when they got shut out, and it continued in that in that Rams game. In the playoffs, it was like they're so ingrained getting up

the field on the defensive line. They're going this way, and the offensive linement are going this way, man, you know, and if you're not getting to the line to the running back first, then there's gaps big and check this out. So ten times in thirteen games they've given up at least one hundred yards rushing, and in these last losses one fifty three, one twenty one, one oh one, and that was in the rain, one twenty four and one fifty one rushing from running back and four quarterbacks in

this five last five games they don't run. They've dropped four or five. They've fallen from eleventh and run defense to nineteenth under one hundred yards ninety seven to now in these last five games one hundred and thirty two, which is amazing because they're still a top ten overall defense in yards when they're nineteenth against the run. I was just going to say that about in that indie game, because that's when we first saw it, and you saw it.

Nelson and those tight ends for the Colts just getting on the second level and just washing linebackers out of the play. And then what it does is now when you drop back to pass, your linebackers now they have to play the pass. And now those those those tight ends, the same ones that ever been blocking down on you and making those good plays, now they're deceptively sneaking out and hurting us big time, especially in the wed Zoe. So one of the signs on that video shipboard should

be stop the run. I know we've harked on it today, but it was the biggest factor in the playoff game. It's probably the key to Sunday as well. We're out of time fellas a reminder playing the Rams, then this is kind of where it all started. Absolutely, happy birthday, Mick, Thank you very much, Thank you Everson. Thanks to Kyle for producing. Talk to you guys tomorrow, The Breaks Next. This has been a production of Dallas Cowboys dot Com and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.